Except for her...

This is just eating at me. No matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to shake this imagine out of my mind.
She sat there alone, her long hair drapped over her shoulders, she stared straight forward leaned slightly to the side resting her cheek in her right palm. I noticed her from a distance. She didn't speak, she didn't move, she didn't even blink.

Earlier, her Mother had been interacting with all her children, well actually except with her. And there were some laughs coming from the group, well, not really from her. Her Mother began to head gather her things to head out the door and with a faint I love you, she leaned in and kissed them all on the forehead, well really except for her. Saddened she walked away and sat and I, I stood frozen still then turned away.

Truly this image is almost impossible to forget. It lingers in my mind. I feel like I am continously tossing it out over and over because it makes me sad for her, but it just creeps right back on in. I give. I said, "God, what do you want me to do with this?"

It has challenged me to love, in a new way. It has made me want to love, the way Jesus said for me to love. I was reading in Mark one day when I felt like God began to answer my question-my eyes landed on verses 28 & 29.
Jesus was teaching His disciples and they asked Him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” Jesus said is “ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”


I looked up more scriptures about love and found a few more.
John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 13:35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

John 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

John 15:17 "These things I command you, that you love one another.

1 Peter 4:8 "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."

Ephesians 4:2 "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."  

What does love have to do with any of this story? Well, this is what I have come to a conclusion about. I'll start from the top. When you think about how Jesus answered the question, "what is the greatest commadment?" He said to first love God, with everything we had, then He added (on His own) that we must love our neighbors as ourself. Jesus went on to say there are no greater commandments then those two. That is pretty serious stuff,  to love God first, then everyone else second. In John He said that He will know whether we are His disciples or not based on if we love one another. It wasn't suggestive, He is commanding us to love one another. In 1 Peter we are told that love covers a multitude of sins (so that helps to forgive quicker) and in Ephesians we are advised to bear one another in love, in other words “to endure,” or “to put up with,” one another in love. I got to thinking about all this and the emphasis on love? Why is love important enough to be mentioned 551 times through out the bible? Then I saw the girl and her story play out in my mind all over again. Hypotheically, what I saw could be an example of a soon-to- be (if not already is) a hurt and lonely teenager who perhaps builds up resentment who closes out those around her, has a distorted view of what love is, puts up walls and bottles up her feelings? Perhaps she asks herself at the end of the day whether she has a purpose or reason to live? When you take a step back and you try to understand or analyze why people grow up to be who they are, choose to do terrible things, aren't easily forgiving, don't have a pleasant demeanor, and are rough around the edges it is so easy to judge them, but really we have no idea where that person has been, what they have experienced, what they have endured in their life or been through. I'm not making excuses for people who commit crimes, do evil, or are unfair I'm really not. I know we all have a choice to do right from wrong, but what I am saying is I didn't realize before just how many wounded people we live around that it just doesn't come easy to make good choices or do the right thing. This is all my opinion, and I could very well be wrong, but regardless it's has helped me to see grace and love so differently now which makes this thought process all worth while.

 In my measly simple little mind I think I am understanding what Jesus was really saying when He asked us to love another. When He asked us to bear one another with love. When I look at the news I see tradgedies that have happened and they completely rip my heart out, but before I let my heart judge them and grow angry I've had to make myself do something that isn't easy and ask myself, what if love was absent in their life, or absent in the most crucial moments of their life like childhood? And what if this is an effect of it all? Perhaps that person grew up without knowing Jesus, hard for them to believe in Jesus or love for that matter. What if they grew up without a father/mother, or if they did have parents what if they hurt them physically, emotionally, mentally, just like their folks did with them so they continue the cycle? What if they grew up neglected, bullied, teased or alone-how could I expect them to be a loving soul and want to do good when they have no love or goodness in them to give out?  Maybe this doesn't apply to all cases, but what if it did? All while, we grow angry with them, don't care to hear them, don't want to help them, condemn them, hate them. What if maybe, just maybe that is why God felt it was so important to repeatedly ask us to love others, to forgive, to extend grace, and to ABOVE ALL (no matter what they've done) love each other deeply (not a little bit, but DEEPLY) because love can cover a multitude of sins? (mistakes) Maybe the answer was/is so then no one would ever have to miss out on being loved, because if they did miss it somewhere, somehow in their life, but yet we encounter them and live out His commandment to pour love into their lives maybe, they could give love out and that cycle would continue. Even if I am wrong, isn't it a nice thought to explore? They say love makes the world go round, well I believe that statement has a whole new meaning to me now.

I want to love all the..."except for her, him, them"

-Esther